Scott Smith is organising his first ever holiday at the age of 41. Top of his list is visiting extended family he hasn't been able to visit for the last three years.

Going on holiday is rare for Scott, but not because he doesn't have time, or he can't afford it. It's simply because he can't.

Scott Smith plans his next holiday aboard his Freedom Dialysis Project campervan. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

He's is a haemodialysis patient, born with a hereditary kidney condition. Planning a holiday doesn't just include packing his best pair of jeans – Scott needs somewhere to hook up to a dialysis machine for around nine hours. He's been doing this since 1999.

'As patients, we generally can only go away overnight because most of us only do treatment every other day,” says Scott.

'So it's when you're going away for two or three nights that you need to look at how you're going to do you're treatment.”

The good news is he won't have to worry about that anymore. The Freedom Dialysis Project has raised almost $130,000 to purchase a modified campervan, with an on-board dialysis machine, for patients with kidney failure to hook up to whenever and wherever.

Scott approached Waikato Hospital about the idea around 18 months ago. Since then, a $75,000 anonymous donation and funding from Morrinsville Lions Club and Awarua Charitable Trust has helped get the project off the ground.

'We're trying to run the programme, in terms of the rental price, as cheaply as possible to make it assessable to the patients,” says Scott.

'Because so many of them on dialysis don't actually work, they're not able to be working and don't have an active income.

'If we can subsidise it we will try and do that.

'The main thing is to give them the freedom of being able to visit friends and family, and to be able to go away for a holiday.

'It's exciting to be able to finally go away on a holiday. Now we can start making some summer plans.”

Dialysis is a treatment process of cleaning wastes from the blood artificially for people diagnosed with a kidney disease.

It does the job the kidneys normally do. Scott says about 100 homebased haemodialysis patients in the Waikato midland region will be able to hire out the van.

'Our plan is to be up and running to start taking bookings in the next month or so to have the van out on the road for summer.”

Initial details are people can hire the van for a maximum of two weeks per year, per person, with collection from Waikato Hospital.

'All patients will require when they hire the van is a power and water supply and they can dialyse anywhere,” says Scott.

Visit the Freedom Dialysis Project on Facebook or Givealittle page to donate.